Nigerian chef, Hilda Baci who gained popularity following her 100 hours of marathon cooking to surpass the previous Guinness World record set by an Indian chef, Lata Tondon, in 2019 for the longest time spent by an individual on cooking has opened up about past struggles in her life.

Speaking during a recent TV interview, the 27-year-old chef narrated that things had not always been smooth for her but she hopes her story motivates other people not to give up.

According to her, at a point in time, she was homeless but she didn’t give up.

Baci narrated further that though she has achieved some things right now, she is not stopping or resting on her oars.

“A lot of people see this buzz now, and most of them think I dropped from the sky. They don’t know I was homeless at some point. There’s an entire phase and journey that got me here, and I’m not even done.

“This is still part of a journey. I’m still on a path, and I’m still going. It’s not always going to be rosy. It’s not always going to be easy. But we need more examples like this so people can say, ‘Hilda did it, so I can do it as well,” she said during a recent interview with TVC.

Cook-a-thon record breaker, Hilda Effiong-Bassey, popularly called Hilda Baci has spent over N1.1m on a lunch date with her friends.

Baci’s friend, in a video clip reposted by Instablog9ja, was heard saying after church service on Sunday, they all visited a restaurant for lunch.

She explained that after placing their orders, the bill was N1.1m, adding that Baci paid the money.

“Happy Sunday guys, so today, we went to church to thank God for a successful Cook-a-thon. After service, we decided to stop by for brunch, you guys, we ordered the world, and when our bills came in, it was N1.1m, we were like what did we order? But no worries because we were with the world record breaker, so she paid the bill,” Baci’s friend said.

In the video clip, Baci was seen in the company of her friends at the restaurant. The receipt was also displayed in the video clip.

The PUNCH had reported that Baci, at the outset of the marathon cooking streamed on Instagram and YouTube, her goal was to outclass the Indian record holder, who cooked for 87 hours and 45 minutes in 2019, by achieving a non-stop cooking target of 96 hours.

However, with sheer determination and a boisterous crowd including celebrities cheering her up as she engaged in the cooking, Baci, after clinching the 96-hour target, went on to set a new global record of non-stop cooking for 100 hours.

Notable government officials including the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd); Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, President-elect, Bola Tinubu, presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively, and the governors of Lagos and Akwa-Ibom states, Sanwo-Olu and Udom Emmanuel, among others have congratulated the chef on the new feat.

In search of better education and quality of life, a total of 128,770 Nigerian students enrolled in universities in the United Kingdom between 2015 to the end of 2022, analysis of the data obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency of the UK has revealed.

The number of Nigerian students has continued to grow over the years, as Nigerians try to escape the horrors of bad governance, and the disruption of academic activities by tertiary-institutions-based unions such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, among others.

In the 2015/2016 academic year, statistics indicate that 16,100 Nigerians were enrolled in UK universities.

During the 2016/2017 session, there was a sharp decline as only 12,655 Nigerians were enrolled, with experts blaming the recession back home in Nigeria for the drop.

In 2017/2018, the number of enrolled Nigerians reduced to 10,685 while it rose marginally to 10,810 during the 2018/2019 academic session.

A total of 13,020 students were enrolled during the 2019/2020 academic session while 21,305 were enrolled during the 2020/2021 session representing a 64 per cent increase.

The latest data available by HESA revealed that 44,195 students were enrolled for the 2021/2022 session, the highest so far since Nigeria’s independence in 1960.

A breakdown of the HESA statistics shows that in the top 10 international students list, Nigeria ranked third behind China and India.

 The PUNCH reports that foreign tertiary institutions and their respective countries have continued to benefit from the migration of Nigerian students to oversea institutions.

For instance, in 2021, Nigerian students and their dependants in the United Kingdom contributed an estimated £1.9bn to the economy of the UK, according to a report by SBM Intelligence.

An education activist and Programme Director, Reform Education Nigeria, Ayodamola Oluwatoyin, who had spoken to our correspondent earlier, listed poor government policies as one of the reasons Nigerians seek better opportunities abroad.

Meanwhile, The United Kingdom is set to announce new restrictions that will most likely stop Nigerian students and other nationalities studying in the UK from bringing their families over.

According to an exclusive report by The Sun UK, this crackdown will be announced this week.